John Isner battles past Sergei Bubka into the round of 16 – Hall of Fame Tennis Championships 2012
Top seed, John Isner of USA, won a hard-fought match against the Ukrainian qualifier, Sergei Bubka, in the opening round at the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, USA on Tuesday. Isner won a close first set,
then lost the second one but bounced back in the decider to win it 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3 after a battle of one hour and 55 minutes.
The American number one and Bubka served splendidly in the opener, as both of them did not drop even a single game throughout, levelling the score at 6-6 and forcing a tie-break. Isner began with a 3-0 lead and maintained it till
the end, sealing it 7-6(3).
In the second set, both players went neck-to-neck in the first half, evening out the score at 3-3. There was intense fight on Isner’s serve in the seventh game and after four deuces Bubka managed to grab two straight points, snatching
a break to move ahead 4-3. The Ukrainian contestant capitalised on this advantage and won it 6-4.
Bubka and Isner held their serve in the opening seven games of the final set to take the score to 4-3 in the latter’s favour. The American star wasted a couple of break points in the eighth but converted the third one to claim
breakthrough and easily won his subsequent serve to capture it 6-3.
Isner said after the match, “I'm very happy because I won. I knew it wasn't going to be pretty because I haven't played my best lately. I haven't played many matches. And this court is a little bit different.”
He added, “I knew I was going to have my hands full. Playing a qualifier is not easy, because [he's] won three matches. He feels comfortable on these courts, whereas I didn't at all. I was able to pull it out thankfully.”
The American will lock horns with Nicolas Mahut of France in the second round.
The world number 11 joked, when he was asked to comment on his next match, "We can't avoid each other on grass. I should have won my first-round match at Wimbledon (last month) and we would have faced each other."
Isner and Mahut played the longest match in tennis history during the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, which lasted for 11 hours and five minutes. The American contender won that contest in the end with the score of 70-68 in the deciding
set.
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